BEIRUT: Caretaker Telecoms Minister Charbel Nahhas accused Thursday a branch of the Internal Security Forces of unlawfully preventing him access to facilities linked to the Telecoms Ministry.
Describing the act as a “coup,” Nahhas said some 400 heavily-equipped members from the ISF’s Information Branch have also banned employees from entering the second level of the building attached to the ministry in Adliyeh, east of Beirut.
Nahhas said rooms on the second floor, which contained communications equipment donated to Lebanon, were sealed off since Friday.
“This a coup by the Information Branch,” Nahhas told a news conference at the ministry shortly after the incident which was aired live on a local television station.
“Under the law, this act is considered a mutiny,” Nahhas said, laying the blame on ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi.
He said Rifi had taken a unilateral decision to deny access to ministry employees, adding that caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud had no knowledge of the decision.
Nahhas, a member of Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, also said he was waiting for the withdrawal of the police unit after they had been ordered by Baroud to do so.